Title: The Last Namsara (Iskara #1)
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
(I apologize in advance for any mistaken details. I already returned the book to the library so I cannot check anything at this point.)
Initial thoughts after reading: It was enjoyable. A little slow at points, and somewhat predictable at others, but overall a good story. Will read the sequel.
So, it had a predictable love story, but I'm a hopeless romantic, so that's not so bad. It had dragons. I like dragons. I will say that anytime Jarek grabbed Asha, I felt slightly uncomfortable. When I was younger, I wouldn't even have noticed anything other than that he was a jerk, but as I'm older, I can understand that it's him being possessive, domineering, that even though she is some kick-butt feared killer, she still isn't always strong enough to pull away from his unwanted advances. Sometimes it's because of his strength and sometimes it's because of the situation. She may be a fierce heroine, but he is a male who is physically stronger than her who believes he has the right to force her, that he owns her. At other points she is forced to comply because she is the daughter of the king, because she has a reputation to uphold, because she believes that as the King and as her father, he has the right to dictate her life, especially because she believes she owes him. It makes me uncomfortable to read about these things because now I can see the reality of them. I wouldn't want someone forcing me to do anything, but I am also rather weak physically so if they were to hold me down or hold me back from something, I likely wouldn't be able to get away. Including something like this in the story, something that may make readers uncomfortable, isn't wrong. We should be made aware of these realities so that we can work to change them. So yeah, it made me a little uncomfortable, but I wouldn't dislike the book just for that. I wish we had gotten to know some of the other characters better, like Dax or Safire. I really wanted to know more about their stories. Maybe in a later book, eh? I didn't predict everything, but the overall outcome? Yeah, that wasn't hard. You read enough books, things become predictable, even in unique stories. Everything's been done in some form or other. What matters is how you tell it. The Last Namsara was good. I'm sure middle or high schoolers will enjoy it a lot. I think, though, being a tad older, I'm looking for something a bit more complex. I did enjoy the little stories interspersed throughout. That was a fun, clever way of doing that.
Rating (out of 5): 4. I enjoyed it. Not my favorite. Could reread it a few years down the road, but not likely.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
The Required (and Clichéd) Intro
I'll try to make this brief, but the first post to any blog should probably be some sort of introduction about who is blogging and what they're blogging about.
I don't really expect anyone to read this, as I'm not doing it for any professional reasons and I don't plan on sharing it around. I am addicted to stories, mostly in the form of books, and having recently joined a Facebook group full of more avid readers than I could have imagined, I have been inspired by their posts to try to connect more with what I'm reading. Maybe someday I'll try to do more, but for now, I just want to try blogging about the books I read. And maybe some of the shows I watch, as well.
I've read a lot of books already in my life. Some books on here will be rereads and will probably get more in-depth thoughts than those I'm only reading for the first time. Some may be part of a series which I have already started and which I may never reread so I might never make a post on the earlier books. Sorry, but to go back and do the books I've already read months or even years after I finished them would just be too much work. I'll try to sum up whether I liked a book and why, as well as any thought-provoking things I came across. WARNING: there will be spoilers. I don't have enough bookworms in my life with whom I can discuss these things, so this will be my way of getting my thoughts out in the open and working through them. If you don't want spoilers, don't read.
Anyway, a quick bit about myself: I'm a young adult (over 18, younger than 30), a college grad with no real aspirations in life at the moment so I'm biding my time earning some cash and enjoying life as it is. I mostly read YA fantasy, high fantasy, and science fiction. I usually prefer series because I love the story and the length of a series allows you to truly delve into the story and the world therein. I'm a Ravenclaw through and through. (I base my sorting off of the Sorting Hat Chats blog, which is not some silly quiz that you take in which you can't ask questions about the meanings of questions or give reasons for your answers and in which you're stuck with only certain options, but it is a comprehensive blog post that you read through and it explains how you can sort yourself based on your beliefs/goals and you're means of achieving those things and it is flexible enough for everyone to fit themselves into it perfectly. I promise, I am not affiliated with them, I was just introduced to it a few years ago by a friend and once I looked into it I decided it was the best way I've seen for sorting. It's not for everyone because you need to actually sit down and think about who you are, what you care about, and why you do the things you do. Many people prefer to just take a quiz and get an answer. I like explanations and reasoning (I did say I was a Ravenclaw) so this is my preferred. Anyway, that got rather long. Back on topic.) I'm a dreamer, a thinker, I'm creative and artistic, I love creative problem solving and riddles (though I'm not always very good at them), and I find joy in the little things and just try to live each day as it comes.
Favorite book (because this is a book blog): I have three series that are all vying for first place because I love them each for different reasons. They are:
1) Harry Potter (classic, almost cliché, but it's got to be included): I grew up with these books. They are what first got me interested in reading. HP and the Sorcerer's Stone is one of only two books my sister read to me when we were growing up (if my parents read to me, I was too little to remember it). They've got a fun story, very entertaining, but they also make a lot of great points about friendship, courage, good vs evil (and the gray area in-between), etc. There's so much more to them, probably even more than JK Rowling ever realized as she wrote them or even as they became so popular over the years. I collect inspirational quotes. No other book or series comes even close to having as many quotes in my collection as HP does.
2) How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell: written for a younger audience, but so well-written that I never hesitate to recommend them to friends my age and they all end up loving the series as well. Similar to HP, HTTYD is a fun story with a lot of great lessons but being written for a younger audience, you get more goofiness and less of the intense things like characters dying, torture by cruciatus curse, witchcraft, you know, the things that make parents question whether their child should be reading these books. HTTYD is lighthearted but still chock-full of wonderful lessons, inspiration to stand up for what's right, etc. As soon as I read it, it couldn't not be one of my favorites. (Side note: HTTYD is also my favorite movie. Yes, I'm an adult and my favorite movie is a cartoon. The books and movies have completely different stories, but they are both just so amazing.)
3) Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson): very, very long but so rich in detail. Robert Jordan wrote and entire world into existence, including various cultures and a rather comprehensive history. There are parts of it I don't agree with (one character falls for three women and they all decide that they can share him if that's the only way they can get him; also, most of the women in the book annoy me to no end - definitely written by a man) but I don't read because I want happy fluffy comfort pieces that are going to agree with everything I believe, I read to learn about life, about different world-views, to be inspired, to be provoked to ask questions and really think about what's truth. Anyway, Robert Jordan did such an amazing job of building this world and its myriad characters, it's one of the most vibrant, colorful, richest worlds I have ever imagined. And it's not a simple, predictable story-arc where you get beginning to end, but rather a description of what's going on with different characters and in different parts of the world over the span of fourteen books as everything is shifting and leading to that last final conclusion.
I have so much more to say and so many more books I could write about, but this has already gone on much longer than I mean for it to, so I'll end it here.
I don't really expect anyone to read this, as I'm not doing it for any professional reasons and I don't plan on sharing it around. I am addicted to stories, mostly in the form of books, and having recently joined a Facebook group full of more avid readers than I could have imagined, I have been inspired by their posts to try to connect more with what I'm reading. Maybe someday I'll try to do more, but for now, I just want to try blogging about the books I read. And maybe some of the shows I watch, as well.
I've read a lot of books already in my life. Some books on here will be rereads and will probably get more in-depth thoughts than those I'm only reading for the first time. Some may be part of a series which I have already started and which I may never reread so I might never make a post on the earlier books. Sorry, but to go back and do the books I've already read months or even years after I finished them would just be too much work. I'll try to sum up whether I liked a book and why, as well as any thought-provoking things I came across. WARNING: there will be spoilers. I don't have enough bookworms in my life with whom I can discuss these things, so this will be my way of getting my thoughts out in the open and working through them. If you don't want spoilers, don't read.
Anyway, a quick bit about myself: I'm a young adult (over 18, younger than 30), a college grad with no real aspirations in life at the moment so I'm biding my time earning some cash and enjoying life as it is. I mostly read YA fantasy, high fantasy, and science fiction. I usually prefer series because I love the story and the length of a series allows you to truly delve into the story and the world therein. I'm a Ravenclaw through and through. (I base my sorting off of the Sorting Hat Chats blog, which is not some silly quiz that you take in which you can't ask questions about the meanings of questions or give reasons for your answers and in which you're stuck with only certain options, but it is a comprehensive blog post that you read through and it explains how you can sort yourself based on your beliefs/goals and you're means of achieving those things and it is flexible enough for everyone to fit themselves into it perfectly. I promise, I am not affiliated with them, I was just introduced to it a few years ago by a friend and once I looked into it I decided it was the best way I've seen for sorting. It's not for everyone because you need to actually sit down and think about who you are, what you care about, and why you do the things you do. Many people prefer to just take a quiz and get an answer. I like explanations and reasoning (I did say I was a Ravenclaw) so this is my preferred. Anyway, that got rather long. Back on topic.) I'm a dreamer, a thinker, I'm creative and artistic, I love creative problem solving and riddles (though I'm not always very good at them), and I find joy in the little things and just try to live each day as it comes.
Favorite book (because this is a book blog): I have three series that are all vying for first place because I love them each for different reasons. They are:
1) Harry Potter (classic, almost cliché, but it's got to be included): I grew up with these books. They are what first got me interested in reading. HP and the Sorcerer's Stone is one of only two books my sister read to me when we were growing up (if my parents read to me, I was too little to remember it). They've got a fun story, very entertaining, but they also make a lot of great points about friendship, courage, good vs evil (and the gray area in-between), etc. There's so much more to them, probably even more than JK Rowling ever realized as she wrote them or even as they became so popular over the years. I collect inspirational quotes. No other book or series comes even close to having as many quotes in my collection as HP does.
2) How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell: written for a younger audience, but so well-written that I never hesitate to recommend them to friends my age and they all end up loving the series as well. Similar to HP, HTTYD is a fun story with a lot of great lessons but being written for a younger audience, you get more goofiness and less of the intense things like characters dying, torture by cruciatus curse, witchcraft, you know, the things that make parents question whether their child should be reading these books. HTTYD is lighthearted but still chock-full of wonderful lessons, inspiration to stand up for what's right, etc. As soon as I read it, it couldn't not be one of my favorites. (Side note: HTTYD is also my favorite movie. Yes, I'm an adult and my favorite movie is a cartoon. The books and movies have completely different stories, but they are both just so amazing.)
3) Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson): very, very long but so rich in detail. Robert Jordan wrote and entire world into existence, including various cultures and a rather comprehensive history. There are parts of it I don't agree with (one character falls for three women and they all decide that they can share him if that's the only way they can get him; also, most of the women in the book annoy me to no end - definitely written by a man) but I don't read because I want happy fluffy comfort pieces that are going to agree with everything I believe, I read to learn about life, about different world-views, to be inspired, to be provoked to ask questions and really think about what's truth. Anyway, Robert Jordan did such an amazing job of building this world and its myriad characters, it's one of the most vibrant, colorful, richest worlds I have ever imagined. And it's not a simple, predictable story-arc where you get beginning to end, but rather a description of what's going on with different characters and in different parts of the world over the span of fourteen books as everything is shifting and leading to that last final conclusion.
I have so much more to say and so many more books I could write about, but this has already gone on much longer than I mean for it to, so I'll end it here.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)